Maris-Mantle Home Run Race: Aug, 26, 1961

George

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, August 25, 2011

Roger Maris hit his 51st home run of the season 50 years ago today to help the Yankees beat the Athletics 5-1 in Kansas City.

It was the Yankees’ 129th game of the season and Maris was 10 games ahead of the pace Babe Ruth set in 1927 when he belted a record 60 HRs. Ruth, who was about to go on a late-season surge, had 44 home runs after 129 games and didn’t hit home run No. 51 until his 139th game.

Mickey Mantle is also ahead of the Bambino’s record pace with 46 home runs. On this date 50 years ago, the Mick was 2-for-3 with two singles, two walks and a strikeout. One of those walks came with two outs in the top of the third of a scoreless game. Yogi Berra followed Mantle’s walk an RBI single, scoring Bobby Richardson, who had also walked, with the game’s first run. Mantle advanced to second and he scored when Moose Skowron followed with another RBI single to make it 2-0.

After Richardson’s RBI double in the fourth made it 3-0, the first two batters up in the sixth, Tony Kubek and Maris, blasted back to back home runs to up New York’s lead to 5-0. That would be Maris’ only hit as he finished 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.

Meanwhile, Bill Stafford was pitching one of his best games of the season as he took a one-hit shutout into the bottom of the ninth. He struck out the leadoff batter, but then yielded a double to Dick Howser, who scored on a two-out RBI single by Wayne Causey. But Stafford got Norm Siebern to fly out to center to end the game and complete a three-hitter with eight strikeouts and one walk as he improved his record to 11-7.

Now Playing:

Did You Know … The starting catcher for Kansas City 50 years ago was Joe Pignatano, a name that should be familiar to old Dodgers and Mets fans. Pignatano was signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1948, but didn’t make it to the big leagues until 1957, the Dodgers’ last year in Brooklyn. He was a backup catcher on the ’59 Los Angeles Dodgers that won the World Series. He ended his career as a member of the 1962 expansion New York Mets, hitting into a triple play in his last major league at-bat. But Pignatano is probably best remembered by Mets fans as the team’s bullpen coach from 1968-81, and during his later years with the team cultivated a vegetable garden in the bullpen.